“At Target, we know that mobile phones are an integral part of our guests’ lives, and mobile coupons are just another way we’re providing convenient, on-the-go shopping solutions,” said Steve Eastman, president of Target.com.

In addition to using the new mobile coupons, Target guests can access their Target Mobile GiftCards, view online assortments, check product availability and store locations, manage their Target gift registry and lists, browse the weekly ad, and receive text and e-mail notifications of great deals – all via their mobile phones.

[via engadget]

“We’ve always made it easy for our customers to save money,” said Mike Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for JCPenney. “These mobile coupons are the ultimate in customer convenience, because there’s no need to clip or carry around a printed coupon, and they can be instantly scanned from a cell phone. It’s another way we’re innovating to enhance the customer’s shopping experience.”

JCPenney will promote this initiative – introduced during National Coupon Month – through Web and mobile advertising, and directly via e-mail and other messaging to members of JCPenney’s JCP Rewards program in the Houston market.

To receive JCPenney coupons, shoppers must be registered with Cellfire and live within the Houston metro area. Cellfire automatically delivers savings directly to consumers on their mobile phones, and provides frequently updated discounts specific to their geographic area.

[via phonemag]

Mobile coupons are attractive to both consumers and vendors as they can be targeted at specific groups of customers and can be matched against particular interests and purchasing patterns, as opposed to the vanilla approach where “everybody gets every coupon” as in the traditional model.

Mobile Coupons Report author Howard Wilcox explained: “We believe that merchants will see targeted, quick one-to-one marketing campaigns via mobile coupons as a valuable marketing weapon. Considering that mobile coupons offer much better redemption rates and are more cost effective, they represent a win-win approach for innovative retailers.”

Other findings from the Juniper Research report:

• With in excess of 100m mobile phone users globally forecast to use mobile coupons in 2010, Juniper Research sees significant growth across the developed markets of North America, Western Europe, the Far East and China.
• As well as the key drivers, however, there are some significant hurdles, including the lack of suitable point of sale (POS) infrastructure at the supermarket checkout allowing for the quick and easy redemption of coupons, which is critical to the consumer shopping experience.

“An increasing number of consumers are using their mobile phone for more than talking and texting and we are looking to tap into that trend,” said Kathy Hollenhorst, Senior VP of Marketing of Caribou Coffee. “We’re leveraging the Cellfire mobile coupon service to drive store traffic, increase trial of our great coffee and convert new guests into loyal customers.”

Coffee lovers can take advantage of the exclusive deals at Caribou Coffee by subscribing to the Cellfire mobile coupon service at http://www.cellfire.com from their mobile Web browser or computer. They simply show the coupon offer code on their cell phone to the person at the register to receive the discount.

“We think that in general, advertisers and operators must tread carefully when delivering marketing messages to a consumer’s mobile handset, especially given that many subscribers believe they are paying a significant amount of money for their mobile services,” says research director Michael Wolf. “However, we believe that marketing and advertising messaging that is properly crafted and that utilizes incentives could enjoy more acceptance on the part of the consumer.”

Incentives that received the most positive response in an ABI Research study were real-world discounts and coupons for retail storefronts. In fact, over 60% of those who were either neutral or open to potential text message marketing nominated a discount coupon at a local retailer as the incentive they would most likely respond to. The next most popular incentives were free ringtones and songs.

“As more content and applications move through both messaging systems and browsers, advertisers are going to need to consider how best to package advertising,” said Wolf. “We believe that most consumers will ultimately be amenable to limited marketing on their mobile phones, particularly that which is non-intrusive, targeted, and that can bring them some kind of value in the form of both real-world and digital media-based incentives.”

The new Juniper study finds that mobile coupons are becoming an increasingly important tool for brand owners and retailers to provide a `push to purchase’ capability for mobile marketing and advertising campaigns. The key issues driving the move to mobile coupons include:

• Cost savings on campaigns
• An increase in ARPU
• One-2-one marketing opportunities
• An increase in customer retention for mobile operators – lower churn
• Higher conversion rates
• The expansion of mobile value added services
• Reduced fraud

However, Juniper identified some notable challenges for the sector, including a hesitancy from some retailers to adopt mobile coupons. In addition, some retailers would have to change from using laser scanners to optical readers that use the required CCD, technology to read barcodes, especially 2D barcodes from mobile phones.

Juniper Research defines a mobile coupon as “a coupon sent and stored on a mobile phone that can be exchanged for a rebate, a financial discount etc. at a retailer when the consumer purchases a product.” When compared to their paper cousins, mobile coupons offer a number of distinct advantages allowing the coupon issuer a direct connection between themselves and the consumer using the coupon.